Wednesday, August 08, 2007

JOHN EDWARDS on BASHAM & CORNELL RADIO SHOW FRIDAY


JohnEdwards.com On Friday August 10th, Senator John Edwards will be the guest on the Basham and Cornell Radio Show at 8 am Pacific Time on AM 1230 KLAV in Las Vegas. The Basham and Cornell Show broadcasts weekday mornings at 8 am Pacific (11 a.m. Eastern). All shows are simulcast on the Internet (and archived) and can be listened to at BASHAM AND CORNELL.COM



John has dedicated his career to representing families and children just like the families he grew up with in Robbins, North Carolina. Standing up against the powerful insurance industry and their armies of lawyers, John helped these families through the darkest moments of their lives to overcome tremendous challenges. His passionate advocacy for people like the folks who worked in the mill with his father earned him respect and recognition across the country. In 1998, John took this commitment into politics to give a voice in the United States Senate to the people he had represented throughout his career. He ran for the Senate and won, defeating an incumbent Senator.

Senator Edwards brought a positive message of change to the 2004 presidential primaries. During the primary season he spoke about the two Americas that exist in our country today: one for people at the top who have everything they need and one for everybody else who struggle to get by. This powerful message resonated with voters all across America. After the Democratic primaries, Senator John Kerry picked Senator Edwards to serve as his running mate in the 2004 general election, and Senator Edwards crisscrossed the country and campaigned tirelessly on Senator Kerry's behalf.

Senator Edwards will be in Las Vegas on Friday August 10, for a Town Hall meeting. It will be held at the Laborers International Union Local 872 - 4201 East Bonanza Road #101. The event gets started at 4:45 p.m. Some of the topics Senator Edwards will discuss will be trade, keeping jobs in America, getting real universal healthcare for all Americans and stopping the threat of global warming.

Attendance to this Town Hall meeting is free, but the Edwards campaign would like you to at least RSVP if you will be attending. You can go to their web site, at www.JohnEdwards.com; you can email them at nevada@johnedwards.com; or call 434-3978 here in Las Vegas.

Nevada is a red state, but we have the ONLY Progressive Talk-radio show in Las Vegas! Basham and Cornell Show is now a DAILY SHOW! Tune in LIVE FROM 8-9 a.m. Monday thru Friday online or live from LAS VEGAS (KLAV 1230) BASHAM AND CORNELL PROGRESSIVE TALK


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SUPPORT LABOR * MINERS NEED TO UNIONIZE
Before we get into the sex lives of the presidential candidates, I want to mention how important it is for our coal miners to unionize. In Canada, during a recent miner's catastrophe, all the miners walked out alive. Why? They were unionized. Their safety came first. The coal companies built underground "safe rooms" stocked with water, food and enough air to be able to live for a month. The miners demanded this and of course they are all alive.

If our coal miners were unionized, they wouldn't be trapped underground facing death. The greed of coal mining companies has prevented safe guards which could save lives. The owners brag that they prevent their workers from unionizing, thereby saving money — and their stock rises!

FAMILY VALUES: DEMOCRATS KEEP THEIR VOWS AND STAY MARRIED... BUT WHO KEEPS TRADING FOR TROPHY WIVES?




Republicans, the party of so-called "family values" has none. Guiliani is on his third wife, Fred Thompson is on his second, and she is 30 years younger. And we all know about Newt Gingrich, Ted Haggart, Rep. Bob Allen, Mark Foley and all the right-wingers who preach family values but are closet cases...

Democrats stay married. John Edwards is still married to Elizabeth and sticks by her through her cancer treatments (remember Newt Gingrich forced his ailing wife to sign divorce papers on her cancer bed, so he could marry a younger model); Hillary stuck with Bill through devastating trials as their vows and Biblical principles prove in "For better or for worse;" and Obama is married happily to his first and only wife Michelle. Al Franken also is still married to Frannie for over 30 years.

Democrats care about health insurance for children.
Republicans don't.

Democrats care about labor unions. In fact, if the coal miners had a union, they wouldn't be trapped underground facing death. Republicans brag that they prevented their workers from unionizing, so their stock could rise.

In Canada, during a recent miner's catastrophe, all the miners walked out alive. Why? They were unionized and insisted on building underground "safe rooms" stocked with water, food and enough air to be able to live for a month. The miners demanded this and of course they are all alive

The greed of coal mining companies has prevented safe guards which could save lives.

This is the American dream?

218 comments:

  1. There are definitely differences in the two parties. Some people are so angry at the Dems that they lump them together...but as you pointed out Dems are for the Labor Unions and for kids to have health care. The Conservatives don't give a damn except that they make their business profit...and of course enjoy the best health care for their own families. I don't know how they sleep at night myself.

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  2. Lydia,

    I would appreciate it if you asked John Edwards if he would consider accepting a Veep spot on Hillary's ticket?

    I hope he would say no, as I think he would be far more effective and useful as Secretary of State or head of Health and Human Services or Labor.

    Just my opinion.

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  3. I find it unconscionable that the companies owning the coal mines have consistently kept miners from unionizing. How many mines need to collapse before the miners take that step? How many deaths?

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  4. As long as Corporate America has free rein to send American jobs overseas, and fund politicians in both parties, unions will continue to decline.

    Which is the Republican dream!

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  5. This wouldn't happen under a John Edwards presidency:

    Wall Street plunged in early trading Thursday, yanking the Dow Jones industrials down more than 180 points after a French bank said it was freezing three securities funds that struggled to find liquidity in the U.S. subprime mortgage market.

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  6. This wouldn't happen under a John Edwards presidency:

    Global equity prices plunged Thursday on renewed worries about the US subprime mortgage sector, with European markets closing 2.0 percent lower and Wall Street in sharp decline.

    Investors were rattled by news that the European Central Bank had made a record cash injection into the eurozone banking sector, a sign that the US property crisis might be spreading to other parts of the world, analysts said.

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  7. This wouldn't happen under a John Edwards presidency:

    The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.

    Blog - Dollar to collapse?
    Fistful of dollars - China's trade surplus reached $26.9bn in June


    Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.

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  8. They really really think they are aboveserving in the military and it is for the poor slobs as Bill Murray says in Stripes "stupid enough to join the army";

    Quote of the Day

    By: John Amato

    Greg Sargent:

    “One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I’d be a great president.”

    – Mitt Romney, explaining today why it’s okay that none of his five sons enlisted in the military.


    another version:

    Mitt Romney on Drugs?

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  9. Romney's kids are avoiding serving their country, like Romney avoided the draft.

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  10. Reuters:

    American International Group, one of the biggest U.S. mortgage lenders, warned on Thursday that mortgage defaults are spreading.

    While saying most of its mortgage insurance and residential loans were safe, AIG made a presentation to analysts and investors that showed delinquencies are becoming more common among borrowers in the category just above subprime.

    Another reason John Edwards would be better than the monkey we have now!

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  11. Here is another reason we need John Edwards as President:

    Reuters:

    Gold fell more than two percent on Thursday to a one-week low as concern over liquidity flared in credit markets and central bank gold sales dampened sentiment.

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  12. Reuters:

    Most U.S. retailers posted weaker-than-expected July sales on Thursday, hurt by a delayed back-to-school shopping season and high gas prices that cut consumers' trips to the mall.

    Another result of the Bush economy!

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  13. Today, Edwards is unveiling a comprehensive position on trade at IBEW Local 405 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Trade is going to be the focus of his campaign the entire week, including, I assume, at the presidential debate sponsored by the AFL-CIO tomorrow night (yours truly will be there). Here are the basics on his trade agenda as provided to me by the campaign, with some analysis on each major point.

    Be a Tough Negotiator, Unafraid to Reject Bad Deals: The American position in trade negotiations has been formulated behind closed doors with help from corporate lobbyists. Under the "fast track" procedure, Congress could not amend the resulting deals. Not surprisingly, trade deals include special privileges for American multinational corporations but not protections for worker rights. For example, while the core NAFTA agreement failed to include any labor standards, its Chapter 11 gave corporations sweeping rights to challenge national laws in secretive tribunals, putting investor profits ahead of American sovereignty and protections for health and the environment.

    Edwards is one of the few who will help the working people, instead of ignoring them.

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  14. Americans are feeling decidedly sour about the economy and those in charge of it, fueling Democratic efforts to target business interests in the 2008 election campaign.

    More than two-thirds of Americans believe the U.S. economy is either in recession now or will be in the next year, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows. That assessment comes despite the fact the economy has experienced sustained growth with low inflation and unemployment and generally rising stock values ever since the recession that ended early in President Bush's tenure.

    George W Bush: Destroying the U.S economy!

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  15. A soft-spoken teacher posted the words "Impeach Bush" in a public garden, and Kent police cast him as an outlaw.

    Today Kevin Egler is fighting that in Kent Municipal Court, and the case is emerging as a free-speech issue of interest well beyond the boundaries of placid Portage County.

    Police ticketed Egler for unlawfully advertising in a public place because he put up a free-standing sign near the intersection of Haymarket Parkway and Willow and Main streets.

    Egler said the officer who cited him July 25 asked: "Why don't you put the signs in your own yard?" Egler said his response was that he's a taxpayer and views the public space very much as his yard.

    Only in Bush's Nazi-style approach to dissent!

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  16. John Edwards is helping out the Teamsters in Sioux City on Aug. 5. As you will read the Management tried to steal the show. About ten minutes before JRE's gray minivan pulled up to the Rally Site, the Vice-President of Ready-Mix pulled up in a concrete truck on the opposite side of the picket line. So, as Edwards took the stage, the VP got into the truck, which was still running rather loudly, and unfurled a huge Edwards for Prez sign.

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  17. Rescue teams were still racing to reach six coal miners who remained trapped 1,500 feet below ground a day after an Aug. 6 collapse at the Crandall Canyon Mine in central Utah.

    The collapse was so intense that it initially registered as a magnitude 3.9 earthquake, according to researchers at the University of Utah who oversee seismography readings for the U.S. Geological Survey.

    The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration was coordinating the rescue with local mine company officials.

    Rescuers brought in heavy drilling equipment Aug. 7 to try to reach the miners, an effort that the mine’s owner said would take at least three days.

    “Progress has been too slow, too slow,” Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp. of Ohio, told the press. His company owns the Crandall Canyon Mine.

    Unfortunately for the miners and their families, his comments were in line with the company’s prior performance on worker safety issues.

    Federal mine safety inspectors have issued more than 300 citations against the mine company since January 2004.

    The Crandall Canyon Mine uses a method called “retreat mining,” in which miners initially leave pillars of coal to hold up an area of the mine’s roof. When a section is mined out, the company pulls the pillar and recovers that coal, allowing the roof to collapse. Experts say the technique is one of the most dangerous in mining.

    Lydia's right: No union no safety!

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  18. The Official George W. Bush
    "Days Left In Office"
    Countdown:

    529 DAYS
    8 Hrs 52 Min 20.4 Sec

    Will this day ever come?

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  19. Yes, what's up with that? The Republicans are the one's who cheat on their wives, 3 and 4 at that, and also come out of the closet, or are forced out rather, by gay sex scandals.

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  20. Larry, in fairness to Romney, he was selected in the lottery, but at a significantly high number.

    Now, granted, who his father was may have made the drawing suspect, but his number was never called, so it's not fair to say he dodged the draft.

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  21. The Dow fell 300 points today. So much for that "economic expansion", funded primarily by debt.

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  22. I hope Lydia asked Edwards for his opinion of the FISA vote and his energy policy.

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  23. In a Thursday morning press conference, President George W. Bush insisted that there was no need to hold Attorney General Alberto Gonzales accountable because he had done nothing wrong.

    "I haven't seen Congress say he's done anything wrong," the President insisted. "I believe, David, we're watching a political exercise."

    He went on, "Why would I hold someone accountable who's done nothing wrong?"

    The President also dismissed the idea that after commuting his jail sentence, he had freed convicted former Vice Presidential Chief of Staff I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby from accountability.

    "Lewis Libby was held accountable," he stated in a curt manner. "He was declared guilty by a jury. He paid a high price for it."

    Another Bush lie!

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  24. Only In America could the economy be falling apart, thousands losing their jobs each week, dozens upon dozens killed in Iraq everyday, including U.S soldiers, and Bush does this:

    With Congress already out of town, Bush was leaving Washington right after the question-and-answer session for a three-night stay at his father's oceanfront compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he is attending the wedding of a friend. Then Bush will leave for his annual vacation in Crawford Texas.

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  25. President Bush said yesterday that he is considering a fresh plan to cut tax rates for U.S. corporations to make them more competitive around the world, an initiative that could further inflame a battle with the Democratic Congress over spending and taxes and help define the remainder of his tenure.

    The economy is shattered and Bush wants to give more tax-payer dollars to the rich.

    No wonder a severe recession is looming.
    Advisers presented Bush with a series of ideas to restructure corporate taxes, possibly eliminating narrowly targeted breaks to pay for a broader, across-the-board rate cut. In an interview with a small group of journalists afterward, Bush said he was "inclined" to send a corporate tax package to Congress, although he expressed uncertainty about its political viability.

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  26. Just interviewed Senator John Edwards. He is really strong. He keeps getting shoved aside and the media keeps focusing on the wrong things, but his heart is really in the right place.

    Tune in tomorrow.... at 8 am or in the archives.
    www.bashamandcornell.com

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  27. I will be sure to listen. I wish we could have asked him questions.

    I am really undecided right now as to who I want to support, but I really am leaning towards Joe Biden. Biden has the experience we need for the mess we're in.

    I think this is a monumnetal mess Bush put us in, and I don't think its the time for trying out newbees. Bush was a newbee, and look how he turned out.

    Edwards would make a fine VP candidate I think, but right now I am looking to someone like Biden, who has the experience to get us out of this clusterf#$k.

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  28. I always liked Biden, but he had that "Macaca" moment the other night, which hurt him. I was so disappointed in the way he dismissed that woman's question the other night -- the woman who lost her husband in the Sago Mines last year. He has a great opportunity and blew it. He barely acknowleged her then went BACK to his point about Musharraf...

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  29. Singapore - Former US Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday that he may return to politics in the future but repeated his position that he has no plans to enter the 2008 presidential race.

    "I may re-enter politics at some point in the future because I'm only 59 years old," Gore told reporters on the sidelines of a forum in Singapore.

    Gore said he has "no plan" to run in the 2008 presidential election but aims to make the environment a focus of public discussion during the campaign.

    "There is no single candidate that is putting forward a comprehensive argument about the environment or making climate change a priority," Gore said.

    Thanks From The Left

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  30. I watched and listened to the Chimp's post-tick treatment press conference today and as he spoke, something extraordinary happened:

    the Dow fell with his every word

    It was as though the Dow board had somehow gotten unplugged. Following each word the Chimp drawled, the Dow fell, and fell, and fell.

    Extraordinary.

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  31. Mike there is info about a silver lining on the FISA law over at this blog:

    http://richmonddemocrat.blogspot.com/search/label/FISA

    It's about why Jim Webb voted for the temporary 6-month patch

    See what you think.

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  32. Lydia Cornell said...
    Mike there is info about a silver lining on the FISA law over at this blog:

    http://richmonddemocrat.blogspot.com/search/label/FISA

    It's about why Jim Webb voted for the temporary 6-month patch

    See what you think."

    Lydia, some of what that blog says makes alot of sense.........but I cant see voting for that again.....if our democracy is that infected by fascists that freedom and Constitutional liberties mean so little then the Democrats should be shouting from the rooftops what the repugs are doing with an election coming up.......theres a time for being nice and THIS ISNT IT........slap them in the snout with their supporting a fascist police state and pissing on the Constition EVERY SINGLE DAY..........THE DEMS NEED TO MAKE THEM OWN THIS.. not sit there quietly with their hands folded and vow to show more courage NEXT TIME.

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  33. In 6 months, there will be supposed political pressure to let this stand, so the Democrats supposedly won't look weak.

    Webb is just like the rest. Voted to fund the war, voted for this.

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  34. Former anti-war leader Cindy Sheehan announced on Thursday that in 2008 she will run as an independent candidate against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). "I dedicate my candidacy to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan," Sheehan said, weeping.

    Sheehan later appeared on CNN to explain that she was running because "they're not making the administration change course in Iraq. They give him more money ... to wage the war. They're not holding him accountable."

    She doesn't stand a chance, but I wish she did.

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  35. Sheehan's doing what needs to be done. Too many of the dems are as rotten as the Goppers. It's past time to start throwing them out.

    Anyone hated by BOTH political establishments must be doing something right, as far as I'm concerned.

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  36. I hope she beats Pelosi...........Pelosi is a disgrace.

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  37. Pelosi will have all the oil lobby money behind her.

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  38. Lydia,

    A question?

    Were you on an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm?

    You played a character who sold a bra to Larry David for him to give to his maid so she could keep her job?

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  39. Carl said "Without mentioning Bush by name and opening a door to repeated bashing back by right wing pundits and radio jocks, Carter laid out the case for what America needs to do to right itself.

    You'll notice that much of it is addressed right to the American people, not the party. Echoing FDR, he said we must not allow ourselves to be bullied into fear, either by terrorists external or worse, the ones ruling us.

    In other words, see something, say something. And I think a lot of people let those words wash over them like a soothing bath and got the courage to make a call, to talk to a friend, to challenge the bar bully know-it-all who tries to talk over people (like, say, Sean Hannity) by confronting him.

    And if it meant a punch in the face, literally or figuratively, the point was made: we weren't going to be afraid of the fight any longer. Eventually, we'd prove our point and win.

    You see it in the news and on the talking head programs more and more, as well: people willing to stand up and be counted, rather than avoid confrontation. It must be driving Bill O'Reilly crazy that liberals are talking over him now.

    I don't think we should ever have been bullied in the first place, but that's just me. I know I wasn't, and I've had some nasty run-ins with neo-con right wingers, many of whom I've managed to make friends with despite our differences.

    The political pendulum in America swings to and fro, and right now, it's swinging from the fro to the "to": To America. To the left. To the future. To what's right. We're at the beginning of a new era in American politics, American policy, and American prestige. Our beacon of freedom and liberty, hidden under a bushel of corruption, anger, hatred and greed for these past six years, is being uncovered by a new generation of caretakers, who will point that beacon at our enemies and more important, our friends, and remind them of what makes America great.

    All the money in the world can't buy greatness. All the debt we've rolled up won't buy us prestige. None of the bounty that God in His (or Her) infinite wisdom has blessed this land with will help us now. We have to get back to the basics of this country. Opportunity for all, justice for all, freedom for all.

    We must stop being afraid of terrorists, but more, we must stop being afraid of those who would exploit terrorism for their own political benefit. We've allowed Osama bin Laden, a pathetic, sick, weak, evil man, to become a bogieman of immense proportion because he startled us.

    But I say to you, there is more courage in the New York City secretary who gets dressed in the morning and hops on a subway train to her job in lower Manhattan than in all the conservative bloggers in the country. She is not afraid of Osama bin Laden because of Osama bin Laden. Instinctively, she knows she's afraid of what's been represented to her by these evil twisted and sick men (mostly) who would want nothing more than to watch her sweat and shake while their cronies stick their hands in her pocket the next time she fills up her Honda Accord with gas.

    There's the real enemy. There's what we really should be angry at. And we should be angry at a government that's allowed this situation to get so far out of control that the very mention of an ancient steam pipe exploding in Manhattan or an undermaintained bridge over the Mississippi collapsing raises the immediate spectre of Al Qaeda.

    Fu%@ them, I say. Al Qaeda wants to come over here and get rowdy? Let 'em! They'll buy a whole lot more trouble here than they bargained for. I know neighborhoods in Brooklyn that would just be itching for some moron to show up with C4 strapped to his chest.

    And in the meantime, we can bring our troops home from Iraq and let them get on with their lives, making America a great place, once again.

    The people will speak, and they will be heard, and we will take our country and government back.

    And to the Hugh Hewitts, the Sean Hannitys, the Michael Fumentos, the Dean Barnetts of the country, and every other ignert right-wing scaremonger?

    Fu%$ you, too. We're through with you. Go ahead and pick on the big boys, the candidates, the Democrats who are front page news. We're coming up behind you, so keep your scared little eyes behind you, too. We won't be so polite and kind.

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  40. Carl, that was an excellent article...........I said the same thing yesterday, and Doug Basham said the same exact thing Monday on the radio.

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  41. Jim Webb was trying to hid behind Feinstein and a few others in voting to give away our rights.

    Feinstein is as close to a Repug as Liebermann without becoming a total taitor.

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  42. As of Thursday, Aug. 9, 2007, at least 3,683 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.

    That "surge" is really working!

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  43. Islamic extremists embedded in the United States — posing as Hispanic nationals — are partnering with violent Mexican drug gangs to finance terror networks in the Middle East, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report.

    Islamic extremists embedded in the United States — posing as Hispanic nationals — are partnering with violent Mexican drug gangs to finance terror networks in the Middle East, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report

    Maybe this is why Bush wants illegal aliens to come here freely!

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  44. Need a down-payment for your home? Seed money to start a business? The Army wants to help — if you're willing to join up. Despite spending nearly $1 billion last year on recruiting bonuses and ads, Army leaders say an even bolder approach is needed to fill wartime ranks.

    Under a new proposal, men and women who enlist could pick from a "buffet" of incentives, including up to $45,000 tax-free that they accrue during their career to help buy a home or build a business. Other options would include money for college and to pay off student loans.

    An Associated Press review of the increasingly aggressive recruiting offerings found the Army is not only dangling more sign-up rewards — it's loosening rules on age and weight limits, education and drug and criminal records.

    It's all part of an Army effort to fill its ranks even as the percentage of young people who say they plan to join the military has hit a historic low — 16 percent by the Pentagon's own surveying — in the fifth year of the Iraq war.

    This sounds like seed money for soldiers blood and breath!

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  45. I had one of my occasional stream of consciousness episodes tonight.

    As a host, Lydia is one of the more grcious ones, far too nice to throw rocks at the people I affectionately refer to as Chimpletons, wingtards, conservotards, etc.

    Me? I'm just not nice that way...

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  46. They are giving $45,000 NOW............I heard a few weeks ago it was $20,000.............they must be REALLY getting desperate............but at least they are giving the money to our soldiers rather than giving $100,000-$200,000 to the Blackwater Brownshirts.

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  47. Nice to see you had a "stream of conscious" tonight, instead of raving at the julicards, Jolly.

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  48. I couldnt agree more JR........with your article as well as with what you just said.

    The wingnuts are a bunch of brainwashed fools that are STILL demanding we not only listen to them but obey them, despite the fact they have been DEAD WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING!

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  49. I just read the article on Newsvine about them increasing the offer.

    They can't get people to join, and won't let the ones already in there get out.

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  50. The repugs are a bunch of scared chicken hawks that would rasther sacrifice freedoms and liberties and Shred our Constitution than show some courage to preserve our way of life..................They would rather let the terrorists win and give up all our freedoms liberties and privacy than stand tall and show courage.........worst of all they put their faith in a bunch of incompetent, lying treasonous criminals to keep them safe................they want Big Brother to protect them from the big bad terrorists.

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  51. LIFE is measured by the number of times it takes your breath away, NOT the number of breaths!

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  52. The only thing taking our breath away lately, is yet another freedom we enjoy being taken away.

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  53. They who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

    Ben Franklin

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  54. Good quote made so many years ago, but could have been made today.

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  55. Check this out:

    a striking but unnoticed extension of domestic surveillance, the little-known National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency deployed a U-2 spy plane on the region affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to track hazards to public health.

    In an article Thursday, Salon's Tim Shorrock explores the emergence of the NGA, born in 1996 from a partnership between the CIA, the Pentagon and the agency that maintains America's spy satellites.

    The single-seat high-altitude plane, originally designed for CIA spy missions -- remembered perhaps for a 1960 mission where a plane was shot down over the Soveit Union -- is a key element of the US arsenal in collecting intelligence overseas. Its high-resolution imagery is critical for examining nuclear and other weapons sites.

    In a way, Shorrock suggests the visible mission of the U-2 over New Orleans is akin to the visible mission of the U-2 over the Soviet Union -- a tip of the iceberg in a much larger program that most of America knows nothing about.

    He notes that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' recent testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first time confirmed the existence of various other domestic surveillance programs beyond those first disclosed by the New York Times, similarly intimating the domestic flyovers are more subversive than simply being used for weather catastrophes.

    Why do people stand by, including the Democrats and allow this to happen?

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  56. Thats how the saftty obsesseed scaredy cat fascists see it though Larry they think the numbers of breaths or the number of zeros in a bank account is more important than a rich life where every second of living it is a privlige that takes your breath away..........it is truly sad and pathetic.

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  57. Larry said...
    Check this out:

    a striking but unnoticed extension of domestic surveillance, the little-known National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency deployed a U-2 spy plane on the region affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to track hazards to public health."


    Hazzards to public heath.................What was old Alzheimer al and Dubya spying on mosquitos now??


    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    More wasted resources and tax dollars from the fascist Monkey Messiah!

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  58. The more poor people starve to death in New Orleans, or the streets of everyday America, and the more U.S soldiers killed in Iraq, are just more numbers of people who will not be able to get a dime that the wealthy want for themselves.

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  59. Bush has to use all those weapons to spy on his own country, since his overseas spying is such a joke.

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  60. Amazing. They make these offers (which, by the way, are Swiss-cheese full of loopholes) and they still can't get the numbers.

    Looks like Chimpy will have to turn up the offshoring again.

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  61. The way the dollar and gold are falling in value, and what they have to go through to get it, who would want it!

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  62. Larry said...
    This wouldn't happen under a John Edwards presidency:

    The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.

    Blog - Dollar to collapse?
    Fistful of dollars - China's trade surplus reached $26.9bn in June


    Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress."

    You talking about this Larry?

    hina threatens to trigger US dollar crash (1 Rating) 9-Aug-07 06:10 pm
    The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US Treasury bonds if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.



    Henry Paulson, the US Treasury secretary, met with Chinese president Hu Jintao in Beijing last week

    Two Chinese officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning, for the first time, that Beijing may use its $1,330bn (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress. Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.

    Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is breaking down through historic support levels.

    WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO THE PRICE OF GOLD?? WE'RE GOING UP!
    EXPLORATION COMPANIES THAT ARE INTO FULL PRODUCTION OG GOLD ADN SILVER ARE THE CHEAPEST AND MOST LUCRATIVE WAY TO GET A RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT!!!


    It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession.

    It is estimated that China holds more than $900bn in a mix of US bonds.

    Xia Bin, finance chief at China's Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what appears to be government policy, with a comment last week that Beijing's foreign reserves should be used as a "bargaining chip" in talks

    Early this morning China let the idiots in Washington, and on Wall Street, know that it has them by the short hairs. Two senior spokesmen for the Chinese government observed that China’s considerable holdings of US dollars and Treasury bonds “contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency.”[China threatens ‘nuclear option’ of dollar sales By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, London Telegraph, August 9, 2007]

    Should the US proceed with sanctions intended to cause the Chinese currency to appreciate, “the Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar.”

    If Western financial markets are sufficiently intelligent to comprehend the message, US interest rates will rise regardless of any further action by China. At this point, China does not need to sell a single bond. In an instant, China has made it clear that US interest rates depend on China, not on the Federal Reserve.

    The precarious position of the US dollar as reserve currency has been thoroughly ignored and denied. The delusion that the US is “the world’s sole superpower,” whose currency is desirable regardless of its excess supply, reflects American hubris, not reality. This hubris is so extreme that only 6 weeks ago McKinsey Global Institute published a study that concluded that even a doubling of the US current account deficit to $1.6 trillion would pose no problem.

    Strategic thinkers, if any remain who have not been purged by neocons, will quickly conclude that China’s power over the value of the dollar and US interest rates also gives China power over US foreign policy. The US was able to attack Afghanistan and Iraq only because China provided the largest part of the financing for Bush’s wars.

    If China ceased to buy US Treasuries, Bush’s wars would end. The savings rate of US consumers is essentially zero, and several million are afflicted with mortgages that they cannot afford. With Bush’s budget in deficit and with no room in the US consumer’s budget for a tax increase, Bush’s wars can only be financed by foreigners.


    Posted in Paul Craig Roberts, World News and Politics, US | No Comments

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  63. That's it. Bush and Congress have sold their souls, and the country to China, and now we are under their thumbs.

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  64. JR, the Neo Cons have started the resource wars, in their mind the less people competing for the resources they desire the better.

    Many countries in the Middle East are developing rapidly and consuming large portions of their increased oil production the Neo Cons want to bomb them back into the stone age so they will no longer need that oil and gas.

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  65. Yeah, but I think GWB is to stupid and arrogant to know it.

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  66. More than 1,000 civilian contractors have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion more than four years ago, according to Labor Department records made available Tuesday.

    In response to a request from Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., the Labor Department revealed that 1,001 civilian contractors had died in Iraq as of June 30, including 84 during the second quarter of the year.

    So far in 2007, at least 231 contractors working for U.S. firms have died in Iraq.

    Those contractor fatalities are in addition to the 3,668 military personnel the Defense Department had confirmed dead in Iraq from the start of the war in March 2003 until today.

    "We are not getting the full picture" of the cost of the war in Iraq, Schakowsky said in a recent interview.

    Another 76 civilian contractors have died in Afghanistan since the start of operations there, the Labor Department records show.

    Besides those killed, 4,837 workers in Iraq and 879 in Afghanistan suffered injuries severe enough to miss at least four days of work, the Labor Department said.

    Blackwater earns their protection money, like Halliburton earns our tax dollars.

    Very poorly!

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  67. We were discussing the coming threat from China the other night in a purely 2-sided context.

    We didn't weigh the possible Russian factor, which would make their ability to project considerably more menacing.

    This is a good article from Information Clearinghouse. I recommend it. Here's a snippet:

    This week the Russian and Chinese militaries are conducting a joint military exercise involving large numbers of troops and combat vehicles. The former Soviet Republics of Tajikistan, Kyrgkyzstan, and Kazakstan are participating. Other countries appear ready to join the military alliance.

    This new potent military alliance is a real world response to neoconservative delusions about US hegemony. Neocons believe that the US is supreme in the world and can dictate its course. The neoconservative idiots have actually written papers, read by Russians and Chinese, about why the US must use its military superiority to assert hegemony over Russia and China.

    Cynics believe that the neocons are just shills, like Bush and Cheney, for the military-security complex and are paid to restart the cold war for the sake of the profits of the armaments industry. But the fact is that the neocons actually believe their delusions about American hegemony.

    Russia and China have now witnessed enough of the Bush administration’s unprovoked aggression in the world to take neocon intentions seriously. As the US has proven that it cannot occupy the Iraqi city of Baghdad despite 5 years of efforts, it most certainly cannot occupy Russia or China. That means the conflict toward which the neocons are driving will be a nuclear conflict.

    In an attempt to gain the advantage in a nuclear conflict, the neocons are positioning US anti-ballistic missiles on Soviet borders in Poland and the Czech Republic. This is an idiotic provocation as the Russians can eliminate anti-ballistic missiles with cruise missiles. Neocons are people who desire war, but know nothing about it. Thus, the US failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Reagan and Gorbachev ended the cold war. However, US administrations after Reagan’s have broken the agreements and understandings. The US gratuitously brought NATO and anti-ballistic missiles to Russia’s borders. The Bush regime has initiated a propaganda war against the Russian government of V. Putin.

    These are gratuitous acts of aggression. Both the Russian and Chinese governments are trying to devote resources to their economic development, not to their militaries. Yet, both are being forced by America’s aggressive posture to revamp their militaries.

    Americans need to understand what the neocon Bush regime cannot: a nuclear exchange between the US, Russia, and China would establish the hegemony of the cockroach.

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  68. I believe this. Bush has been so concerned with taking over the world through Iraq, that the masses, bith big and small are quietly uniting against the U.S.

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  69. Whenever critics of globalization complain about the loss of American jobs to low-cost countries such as China and India, supporters point to the powerful performance of the U.S. economy. And with good reason. Despite the latest slow quarter, official statistics show that America's economic output has grown at a solid 3.3% annual rate since 2003, a period when imports from low-cost countries have soared. Similarly, domestic manufacturing output has expanded at a decent pace. On the face of it, offshoring doesn't seem to be having much of an effect at all.

    But new evidence suggests that shifting production overseas has inflicted worse damage on the U.S. economy than the numbers show. BusinessWeek has learned of a gaping flaw in the way statistics treat offshoring, with serious economic and political implications. Top government statisticians now acknowledge that the problem exists, and say it could prove to be significant.

    The short explanation is that the growth of domestic manufacturing has been substantially overstated in recent years. That means productivity gains and overall economic growth have been overstated as well. And that raises questions about U.S. competitiveness and "helps explain why wage growth for most American workers has been weak," says Susan N. Houseman, an economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research who identifies the distorting effects of offshoring in a soon-to-be-published paper.

    The underlying problem is located in an obscure statistic: the import price data published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Because of it, many of the cost cuts and product innovations being made overseas by global companies and foreign suppliers aren't being counted properly. And that spells trouble because, surprisingly, the government uses the erroneous import price data directly and indirectly as part of its calculation for many other major economic statistics, including productivity, the output of the manufacturing sector, and real gross domestic product (GDP), which is supposed to be the inflation-adjusted value of all the goods and services produced inside the U.S. (For a detailed explanation of how import price data are calculated and why the methodology is suspect.

    The result? BusinessWeek's analysis of the import price data reveals offshoring to low-cost countries is in fact creating "phantom GDP" - reported gains in GDP that don't correspond to any actual domestic production. The only question is the magnitude of the disconnect. "There's something real here, but we don't know how much," says J. Steven Landefeld, director of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), which puts together the GDP figures. Adds Matthew J. Slaughter, an economist at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College who until last February was on President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers: "There are potentially big implications. I worry about how pervasive this is."

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  70. Larry, we know that. Anyone who's spent any time in the Rust Belt knows that their statistics are bullsh*t.

    Now let's get rid of another of their stupid statistics, one the MSM trots out at every opportunity KNOWING that it doesn't match the facts on the ground.

    The unemployment rate is said to be "low." It's kept that way by forgetting about people not able to draw benefits anymore, or those considered "part time" who find themselves without work-they don't exist!

    A much better gauge was the one Volcker preferred-the participation percentages in the labor force. I can't even find that one anymore, and would be grateful to anyone who can.

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  72. Great article JR............its riddiculously obvious that the Neo Con fools know absolutely nothing about war and wanted to restart the Cold War..........Idiots like Cheney, Wolfowitz and Feith arent qualified to run a lemonaide stand yet they are dictating military and economic policy its pathetic.

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  74. I've heard the same thing JR........thatwe compute unemployment very differently than we did in 1980 and that its no where near as accurate......inflation and unemployment should both be around 7%-10% if the stats were accurate and GDP is likely negative if you factor in the REAL rate of inflation anyone who believes inflation has only been 2%-3% is a fool!

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  76. Thats a good article Larry, I think I read that fairly recently.

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  77. Jolly:

    I think they have what you want at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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  78. Blogger keeps eating my comments.

    You may have seen it, I have read it on a couple of sites.

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  79. Looking..... don't see it yet.

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  80. Ugh. I found the BLS numbers. Now I have to try to extrapolate them since they lump a whole bunch of people into the same category.

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  81. http://www.bls.gov/opub/working/page3b.htm

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  82. They are broken down with women, teens, ect.

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  83. Christ.

    The BLS official number of unemployed stands at 7.121,000.

    The number of those "not participating" but who express a desire to return to the workforce is 6,140,000.

    Nearly a million of THOSE people describe themselves as "discouraged" workers.

    So we have an unemployment rate that hovers around the 8% mark, if we count all those who want to work in the mix.

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  84. Here Christopher. I read your "Peace Tree" blog (cool picture) and it inspired me, so in honor of the PeaceTree, I offer this little limerick.

    I've heard some people talk of peace but seldom do they say;

    Tis better lost the higher ground than leave the bodies lay.


    The upper hand the lofty swell the bounty for the win;

    Will whiten blood and well conceal a multitude of sin.


    The means the end the middle ground they all do have their part;

    In reasoning the call to arms that plagues the warriors heart.


    We hear them speak of glory won and courage in the frey;

    Yet seldom taut the valiant stuff where treaties often stay.


    Peace is thus a fleeting thing thats consigned to the bench;

    And only brought through bloody fields still reaking from the stench.


    So some might say a war is won with army's on the roam;

    But others say they're better won by never leaving home.

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  85. Thanks Larry. Just a quick little diddy. Sorry about the repost had to correct a typo.

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  86. It's been some time since you graced the blog with poetry.

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  87. Yea, Christophers blog inspried me.

    I liked the picture of the PeaceTree on the homepage.

    Its soothing.

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  88. Jolly:

    If you continue to click next from each page on the link I gave you, it gives a breakdown of every group.

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  89. Christopher has quiet a following and he usually updates his blog two or three times a day.

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  90. Consider this we need to create 150,000 new jobs a month just to stay even and not have unemployment increase............under Bush we have rarely hit or surpassed that number particularly THIS year, yet unemployment has not gone up significantly..............the numbers are so cooked under this administration that they CLAIM that 2+2 =7 and no one questiones their bogus statistics.

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  91. Lydia Excellent radio show as usual, I just listened to Mondays show on FISA and you made a great point that the Democrats not only showed cowardice by approving his illegal spy program but they legitimized it and gave it validity………………..They gave Gonzalez a man they and the rest of the world are calling an incompetent liar the responsibility to head up a program that Bush CLAIMS is to protect us…………how do you go back and challenge Gonzalez competence NOW when you just voted to give him the power and responsibility to oversee a program that is CLAIMED to protect our country.

    The Democrats NOT only showed extreme cowardice but even worse showed they have extremely poor judgement, they fell into a trap wherein if they NOW try to impeach Gonzalez for corruption, poor judgement, incompetence and criminality the repugs can say but you guys just voted to give him the responsibility to protect us from the big bad terrorists………..how could you vote to give an incompetent criminal that kind of responsibility.

    The Moral is dont give the barbarians the keys to the gates of Rome then cry when they rape, pilage and ransack every village in the city.

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  92. GWB’s NEW mantra and dishonest tactic or game is to endlessly parrot how we need to listen to the experts and generals on the ground in Iraq……….too bad this lying piece of human waste is too hippocritical to practice what he actually preaches……….When General Shinseki a true military expert disagreed with him and his preconceived ideology that a small force was adaquate Bush and his attack dogs tarred and feathered him, they attacked and attemped to discredit him in any and EVERY way possible…….this sent a CLEAR message to the other generals not to disagree with the White House or they would be fired and discredited.

    Bush and his arrogant pompous cabal of chicken hawks who avoided fighting for their country when it was their turn and never served in the military went in half cocked against military advice with too small of a force that was under equiped.

    Bush CLAIMS he listens to his generals, intelligence experts and people on the ground…………thats a bald faced lie!

    He disregarded Shinseki a general who was proven absolutlely right, When the CIA issued a comprehenisive authoriative analysis of the Chaos, Iraqi resentment, likelyhood of a civil war, increased Islamic Fundamentalism and violence, deep rifts and divisions in Iraqi society and an insurgency and guerilla war aimed at US soldiers among other dire consequences and this analysis was presented to Bush, Bush chose to surpress the warnings by US intelligence and conceal them from the public because it weakened his flawed logic and twisted ideology.

    Bush CLAIMS to listen to his generals, intelligence experts and people on the ground……….YET when the man HE chose to handle Iraq policy Paul Bremmer repeatyedly told Bush there were insufficicient troops on the ground to make the policy a success, Bush was simultaneously talking out of the other side of his mouth CLAIMING to the American public that we had MORE than enough troops in Iraq and that he was relying on the American leaders in Bagdad for their oppinion that no more trops were needed. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez’s repeated desperate pleas for more equipment and body armor to protect the troops fell on deaf ears yet Bush CLAIMS to listen to his people and to support the troops.

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  93. The lies of the Reich Wing are so blatant and absurd its riddiculous……..yet the men we elect to represent us and make key decisions seem to lack the wit and intelligence to counter them.

    Worfeus is absolutely right we need Strong intelligent people to put out there to challenge and battle the Reich Wing deceivers in the MSM……..instead of the scarecrows the left puts out there we need people like Olberman, Ritter, Basham etc………….Doug Basham my not be well known in the MSM but he absolutely shreds the Rights lies mantras and dishonest talking points. Lydia I hope when your book comes out you put yoursdelf out there on the political talk shows because we desperately NEED intelligent people who have facts and logic at their disposal to counter the fear and lies.

    whats sad to me is we have many schmoes on this blog capable of shredding and disecting the Right Wings lies and dishonest talking points yet our own congress and the people we put out there in the MSM to represent our position lack the wit and intelligence to do this.

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  94. Those figures Jolly has, are from the government's website, and are far different than what the Dept of Labor claims.

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  95. THe Bush Administration is built on a foundation of lies…….Cheney bristled at the NY Times for daring to state the truth that there was no Al Qaeda/Saddam tie, Cheney then dared to say there was NO fundamental split between Bush’s outrageous lies and the Commission.

    Cheney went on to deny he had ever personally ben responsible for trying to create the false illusion of a linkage between Al Qaeda and Iraq.

    Of Course Jon Stewart outed the liar when he played Cheney’s outright denial that he ever stated Iraqi intelligence met with Al Qaeda in Prague……….then Stewart froze Cheneys ugly mug on the screen and played the EXACT video of when Cheney had stated that very thing in the EXACT words he had denied. After catching the Vice President on video in a blatant bald faced lie Stewart addressed Cheney’s frozen likeness on scren and said”Its my duty to inform you that your pants are on fire”

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  96. I'm excited to hear what Edwards has to say. I agree with Lydia Biden dropped the ball with that guy, but it was a hard question.

    I mean, how do you present the solution to fix the world in a one line response?

    But I do think Biden has made some questionable moves. But I know he's smart, and I think he has the right stuff to heal us internationally. Europeans LOVE Biden, and so do a lot of others internationally. He's cultured, travelled and he's exceedingly gracious to international people, whereas Bush is a CLOD.

    A bumbling CLOD.

    Biden is someone I am "LOOKING" at very closely right now.

    But I haven't counted Edwards out completely. Sometimes a bright young man can turn the country around. It sure worked in Bill Clintons case.

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  97. I kinda like Biden, but right now after watching all the debates Edwards has stood out I think he clearly won all of the debates.

    At this point, I'd like to see Gore or Edwards, although i'd MUCH rather see Richardson, Obama or Biden than Hillary.

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  98. I like Edwards. I had dinner with Edwards, George Miller and David Bonoir in December, and he seems down to earth, and cares for the working and the poor.

    Can't say that for most of the others.

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  99. Credit markets: 'Don't panic', they beg

    Posted by Jerome a Paris

    Something is happening in the credit markets...

    (Note: this text was written Tuesday. For a more polemical take written this Thursday, taking into account the most recent developments of the day (including the unprecedented $130 bn liquidity injection by the European Central Bank) you can go read this new story on European Tribune.)

    Graph of price of Flow loanson the front page of the Financial Times, 7 August


    The above is the price of corporate loans in the secondary market - i.e. on the market where banks trade IOUs from corporations. If you have a contract that says that a company owes you 100, you can usually sell it (to other banks or financial investors) for 100 or thereabout - a bit more if the buyer thinks the interest rate on the loan is really good, or a bit less if it thinks the interest rate is not quite enough to cover the risk that the company might go bankrupt before paying its debt back.

    As you can see above, the price of an IOU of 100 dropped brutally this month from 100 to 95 in the US (and to 97 in Europe). This is the lowest level ever for that market, and an unprecedented drop.

    This is a credit crunch.

    No matter how much the reichwingers and corporate talking heads on TV try and fail to spin it.....

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  100. Edwards seems much more progressive, many of the others are old school democrats

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  101. Housing is to continue to decline throughout 2008. There is a credit crunch.

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  102. Jeremy Rifkin: The crisis under the ice

    While governments and oil giants are hoping the melting ice will allow them access to the world's last treasure trove of oil and gas, climatologists are deeply worried about something else buried under the ice that, if unearthed, could wreak havoc on the biosphere, with dire consequences for human life.

    Much of the Siberian sub-Arctic region, an area the size of France and Germany combined, is a vast, frozen peat bog. Before the most recent Ice Age, the area was mostly grassland, teeming with wildlife. The coming of the glaciers entombed the organic matter below the permafrost, where it has remained ever since. Although the surface of Siberia is largely barren, there is as much organic matter buried underneath the permafrost as there is in all of the world's tropical rain forests.

    Now the permafrost is thawing on land and along the seabeds. If it occurs in the presence of oxygen on land, the decomposing of organic matter leads to the production of CO2. If the permafrost thaws along lake shelves, in the absence of oxygen, the decomposing matter releases methane. Methane is the most potent of the greenhouse gases, with a greenhouse effect 23 times that of CO2.


    While the greedy oil corp whores and their sycophants think arctic melting means more access to more oil deposits, the real trouble might make that a little too much too late as the climate goes over the tipping point.

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  103. Credit fears grip Asian stocks

    Asian stocks fell across the board on Friday and the yen extended gains as investors dumped riskier assets following a rout in global markets sparked by a flare-up in credit jitters

    I guess when the entire worlds markets are reacting to the stupid greedy ways of the uber-rich in corporate american and the crumbling of their scams, the Feds Plunge Protection Team can't do much to stop the crashes, but bide their time and hope some new suckers come along......

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  104. Because of the bloodsuckers in Bushville, all the new suckers are broke.

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  105. Central Bankers are dumping money into the markets in the US Europe and Asia trying to prop the scams up, too bad that extra money will help fuel inflation over time.....no wonder why Bernanke doesn't want to lower rates.

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  106. I think the Central banks are propping up the dollar.........the dollar keeps rallying for NO good reason.

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  107. BTW, just curious, I wonder where the Fool is to say how strong the economy is and defend Bush.

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  108. Got this one in email;

    Guinness Book of World Records:

    Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, and Quasimodo were all talking one day.

    Sleeping Beauty said, "I believe myself to be the most beautiful girl in
    the world."

    Tom Thumb said, "I must be the smallest person in the world."

    Quasimodo said, "I absolutely have to be the most tacky, rude, crude,
    gross, and disgusting person in the world."

    So they all decided to go to the Guinness Book of World Records to have
    their claims verified.

    Sleeping Beauty went in first and came out looking deliriously happy. "It's
    official, I AM the most beautiful girl in the world."

    Tom Thumb went next and emerged triumphant. "I am now officially the
    smallest person in the world."

    Sometime later Quasimodo comes out looking utterly confused and says, "Who
    the heck is Rosie O'Donnell?"

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  109. Gay-dalf is trying to figger how to keep the pennies he thought he made the last couple of years on the stock market ... and he can't understand why his god Milton Friedman won't answer his prayers.....

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  110. Jolly:

    If you continue to click next from each page on the link I gave you, it gives a breakdown of every group.


    Sort of. It lumps "not participating" into one area, and then breaks them down as to reason why. To come up with those numbers I had to throw out "not looking" and "too ill."

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  111. Get ready for World war III:

    Behind the scenes, however, the president's top aides have been engaged in an intensive internal debate over how to respond to Iran's support for Shiite Muslim groups in Iraq and its nuclear program. Vice President Dick Cheney several weeks ago proposed launching airstrikes at suspected training camps in Iraq run by the Quds force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to two U.S. officials who are involved in Iran policy.

    What Cheney wants, Cheney always gets!

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  112. Shares of Countrywide Financial Corp. tumbled before the opening bell on Friday after the largest U.S. mortgage lender said "unprecedented disruptions" stemming from the subprime mortgage fallout could hurt its earnings and financial condition.

    Another result of the faltering Bush economy!

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  113. Reuters:

    Tighter credit, broad deterioration in the housing market and skittish consumer spending will lead to a slower U.S. economy than earlier estimated, according to the most closely watched forecast by U.S. economists.

    The consensus forecast of 50 top economists surveyed between August 1-2 in the Blue Chip Economic Indicators report called for anemic growth in gross domestic product, or GDP, of 2.0 percent this year and 2.8 percent in 2008.

    That was down from their forecast a month earlier of 2.1 percent in 2007 and 2.9 percent in 2008.

    This is the economy Bush was boasting about!

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  114. Three more U.S troops were killed in Baghdad.

    Bush's "surge" of death is working.

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  115. Hi everyone.

    I see a few references to my "Peace Tree blog." That isn't my blog!

    My blog is called From the Left, url: http://fromtheleft.wordpress.com

    I just mention this so the owner of Peace Tree receives proper credit!

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  116. Mike, did you hear the John Edwards interview? My very next question was the FISA law question, about why Dems caved -- but he had a plane to catch.

    Edwards was terrific and he said some really nice things about us...

    We are having him on again, and I'll ask him if there is a silver lining...

    But right now we are doing an interview with Senator Bryon Dorgan of North Dakota and I'm going to ask him all about the FISA act, and how he voted.

    I am also going to ask him if they have a plan regarding this,

    We will air the interview with Senator Dorgan on Monday morning.

    Meanwhile you can listen to today's JOHN EDWARDS interview in the archives at www.bashamandcornell.com

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  117. Lydia, you're interviewing Senators and Presidential front runners.

    To the trolls chagrin, the show is doing great.

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  118. Christopher said...
    Hi everyone.

    I see a few references to my "Peace Tree blog." That isn't my blog!

    My blog is called From the Left, url: http://fromtheleft.wordpress.com

    I just mention this so the owner of Peace Tree receives proper credit!



    So why is Peacetree listed as your blog under your profile, but your blog is not listed?

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  119. Worf,

    Peace Tree is a group Blogger blog. Wordpress blogs don't list on Blogger profiles.

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  120. Thanks Worf. This is exciting to interview so many great people. I think this is how Barbara Walters started -- by interviewing people who make a difference in the world and can help solve our problems. Not just fluffy celebrities.

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  121. Thanks for the compliment, Mike. I think this week I need some anger management :-D

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  122. worfeus,

    I'm still trying to figure that out. It may have to do with registering as a guest blogger on The Peace Tree and using my g-mail email.

    If someone more tech savvy than me knows, please give me a shout out.

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  123. Lydia Cornell said...
    I think this is how Barbara Walters started


    And you've got one up on her.

    You can speak coherent english.

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  124. Christopher, you post here under a Blogger ID which only lists Blogger blogs to which you post. From the Left is on Wordpress. If Lydia Cornell Blog accepted anonymous comments, you could sign in with name and web page without using a blogger ID, but I understand why they don't.

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  125. For the second time in as many weeks, a senior House Republican may have divulged classified information in the media.
    Why aren't they in jail for Treason:

    In an opinion article published in the New York Post Thursday, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., reported the top-secret budget for human spying had decreased -- the type of detail normally kept under wraps for national security reasons.

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  126. Three people have died in a mining accident in Princeton, Indiana, according to the Gibson County, Indiana, coroner's office.

    Police said it's unknown how many miners were in the mine at the time and how the incident occurred.

    More mining tragedy because there is no safety enforcement.

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  127. A car bomb struck a market in a Kurdish area in the northern city of Kirkuk on Friday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens, police said. South of Baghdad, the U.S. military said a helicopter was forced down, leaving two soldiers injured.

    Enjoy your month long vacation Bush while people are dying under your watch!

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  128. If someone was already talking about this here, please forgive me, but I am trying to find a list of Senators and how they voted in the FISA law that was pushed through last Friday.

    I have the House list, but there seems to be a blackout on the Sentate list.

    Does anyone have that list?

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  129. I think I have my log-in updated now. Fingers crossed!

    Larry wrote:

    Enjoy your month long vacation Bush while people are dying under your watch!

    It's all of the ruling class elites in the the Congress.

    The DINO Dems, anxious to begin their month-long vacation, signed off on Bush's spying program, trusting the worst president ever and Gonzo to make rational decisions that uphold the Bill of Rights and the Constitution?

    We're in deep bandini in this country and our so-called elected lawmakers don't give a damn about the people who elected them.

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  130. Hey Lydia,

    I blogged about this very topic last week. Here you go:

    Meet the Democratic enemies of the Constitution:

    Sen. Evan Bayh (IN)
    Sen. Tom Carper (DE)
    Sen. Bob Casey (PA)
    Sen. Kent Conrad (ND)
    Sen. Dianne Feinstein (CA)
    Sen. Daniel Inouye (HI)
    Sen. Amy Klobuchar (MN)
    Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA)
    Sen. Blanche Lincoln (AR)
    Sen. Claire McCaskill (MO)
    Sen. Barbara Mikulski (MD)
    Sen. Bill Nelson (FL)
    Sen. Ben Nelson (NE)
    Sen. Mark Pryor (AR)
    Sen. Ken Salazar (CO)
    Sen. Jim Webb (VA)

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  131. Can you guys beleive Jim Webb shot that one down?

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  132. Christopher, thank you. I'll repost my nomination for you too.

    On our show this morning (and twice this week) we discussed the two big-time Republicans who were busted with their pants down in sex scandals. Both, Rep. Bob Allen and Young Republican Chief Glen Murhpy -- work hard to defeat gay rights, yet are closeted predators. Both assaulted and solicited men, while posing as anti-gay Republican leaders.

    We also discussed Mitt Romney's chicken hawk positino with his 5 sons today, before we had John Edwards on.

    Worf -- I mentioned Jim Webb earlier. Check out The Richmond Democrat blog for Webb's explanation for why he voted in favor of Bush's FISA law. I pray he is right about this 6 -month silver lining.

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  133. In 6 months there will be more political pressure from the neocons claims of not being tough on terrorism, so Webb and the other jellyfish will vote Bush's way another time.

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  134. Lydia,

    Very, very cool. Molti graztiamenti! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  135. At a press conference on Thursday, President Bush delivered an apparent threat against Iran, stating, "One of the main reasons that I asked Ambassador Crocker to meet with Iranians inside Iraq was to send the message that there will be consequences for people transporting, delivering EFPs, highly sophisticated IEDs, that kill Americans in Iraq."

    Neither Bush nor the State Department would elaborate on the meaning of "consequences." However, McClatchy Newspapers reports that "the president's top aides have been engaged in an intensive internal debate over how to respond to Iran's support for Shiite Muslim groups in Iraq and its nuclear program. Vice President Dick Cheney several weeks ago proposed launching airstrikes at suspected training camps in Iraq run by the Quds force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to two U.S. officials who are involved in Iran policy."

    Get ready for the start of World War III: Courtesy of George W Bush!

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  136. Larry, et al,

    Cheney's jonesin to attack Iran.

    He's got the fever -- real bad and he knows the clock is ticking on the final days of Little Boots' administration.

    I expect after August to see a lot of Joementum pushing the Congress in the direction of approving war with Iran and then watch: all the DINO Dems will fall in-line behind Bush like good little lemmings, just like they did in 2002 with Iraq.

    Understand now why I am so angry at Pelosi for taking impeachment off the table?

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  137. I think you're right Christopher and by taking Impeachment off the table, gave them coverless cover to fund the war, approve the Fisa law and ultimately agree to war with Iran.

    ReplyDelete
  138. Mitt Romney and former George Bush major fund raiser indicted for fraud;

    Alan Fabian, a corporate executive from Cockeysville, Maryland, is one of Mitt Romney’s most important bundlers - a former George W. Bush “Ranger” (meaning he collected over $200,000 for Dubya’s campaign), now helping to gather contributions for the Romney campaign. Chris Cillizza calls these top-level bundlers “whales,” and if you scroll down, you’ll see Fabian’s name listed.

    He’s also, according to Federal prosecutors in Maryland, a big-time fraudster:

    A federal grand jury indicted a corporate executive who allegedly ran a scheme to make $32 million in false purchases of computer equipment, spending the money instead on beach real estate and private jet travel, prosecutors said Thursday.

    Alan B. Fabian, 43, of Cockeysville, is charged in a 23-count indictment with mail fraud, money laundering, bankruptcy fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice. The grand jury handed up the indictment Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore and it was unsealed Thursday.


    Why oh why does the reichwing love them corrupt criminals and perverts so much?

    They must because the corrupt criminals and perverts keep popping up in the reichwing.

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  139. Clif,

    Their like flies buzzing around a pile of doggie doo-doo.

    Pure, unadulterated corruption and no one is home to stop them.

    ReplyDelete
  140. Meanwhile, Bush's BFF on FOX Noise, the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol is warbling to right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt that Bush's so-called "Iraq surge" "certainly deserves another six months."

    And another. And another. And another.

    Think: the hundred years war.

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  141. Yesterday Bush said it doesn't matter what lie Petraeus came up with, he wasn't withdrawing troops.

    Why doesn't Pelosi and Reid vote and get this over with: because they are war enablers!

    ReplyDelete
  142. Sometimes the truth slips out;

    David Brooks lets us in on a little secret: Everyone hates Bush

    Video

    We almost missed showing you this little tidbit from last weekend’s “The Chris Matthews Show”. Matthews asks David Brooks who among the Republican presidential contenders would be considered the rightful heir to the Bush throne and David lets slip what we have all known for a while: Bush isn’t that popular, even with his own party:

    BROOKS: Bush…you gotta remember though…a lot of Republicans hate Bush. I mean, we look..we talk about the Democrats, how they hate Bush, in private…

    MATTHEWS: What do you mean, “hate Bush?”

    BROOKS: They think Bush is incompetent and destroying their party.


    Look how absolutely gobsmacked Tweety is with this information. For me personally, it just makes me angry. Because what it tells me is that these politicos enabling Bush to dismantle our Constitution don’t even have the courage of their own convictions–it’s just Party over Country over and over again.

    Nitpicker points out that Brooks unintentionally revealed his true feelings about the party with Romney too...Paging Dr. Freud.

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  143. Wanna know why the idiots in the White House lead by dead eye himself wanna attack Iran SO badly right now?

    Iran, Iraq to build oil pipeline

    Iran and Iraq will sign a deal to build a pipeline that would transfer crude oil from southern Iraqi oilfields to refineries in Iran.

    Iraq announced in May that it had agreed to begin discussions with Iran over the pipeline that will carry 200,000 barrels of Iraqi crude oil to Iran per day.

    "By this contract the Iraqi crude oil will be imported and oil products will be exported," Iran's First Vice-President Parviz Davoudi told reporters. He further added that Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani would visit Tehran in coming days.

    Iraq's oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani is now in Moscow for talks with Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko and senior oil executives.

    Iraq presently faces constant fuel shortage and it is now looking to build four refineries. The country has asked Iranian firms to bid for such contracts across the country.

    Shahristani said in May that Tehran is keen to construct the whole pipeline but Iraq would also consider other offers as well.



    They illegally invaded Iraq for the oil their lies not withstanding, and dead eye ain't about to let those "godless" Iranians to walk away with it, not if he can bomb them back to the stone age like he and Bush are trying in Iraq.

    Too bad he ain't never gonna see any of that oil he lied and schemed to get.

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  144. Good find Clif, I hadn't read about the pipeline, which makes sense from someone who was supposedly going to let the Iraqi's have their own oil.

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  145. Why doesn't Pelosi and Reid vote and get this over with: because they are war enablers!

    The $64,000 dollar question for me is, what does Karl Rove have on Nancy "Bush isn't worth impeaching" Pelosi?

    I have heard a number of theories but my guess is, it has to do with her investments. Like Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who engaged in war profiteering vis a vis the Iraq war, I think Pelosi's portfolio leans heavily to military, industrial complex companies and Rove could discredit her even further were this made public.

    You don't get to a net worth of $30 million selling on eBay.

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  146. AP:

    Tillman's direct superiors knew within hours of his April 2004 death in Afghanistan that the former football star had been killed by fellow Army Rangers, but the truth was kept from the public and Tillman's family for five weeks _ in direct violation of Army regulations.

    "You should not consider this as an adverse action," letters to the officers say. "This document will not be filed in any system of records maintained by the Army."

    In other words, no punishment for those involved in Tillman's death.

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  147. Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees asked a federal judge Thursday to invalidate a days-old law that lets government agents eavesdrop on suspected terrorists without first getting court-approved warrants.

    They said the measure signed into law Sunday by President Bush is illegal because it gives the national intelligence director and the U.S. attorney general too much power to intercept communications of suspected terrorists overseas _ even when they are talking to someone in the United States.

    The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights' lawsuit, along with about 50 others, are all being considered by U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco.

    Bush will ignore any court ruling!

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  148. Impeach him with Pelosi:

    Staff for Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) asked Harpers' reporter Ken Silverstein to submit six questions in May. The reporter said in a recent blog post that he has yet to receive answers to the queries, several of which concern impeachment.

    "Back in May, I requested an interview with Congressman John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and received a quick 'yes' from his office," Silverstein wrote at his blog, 'Washington Babylon' on Wednesday. "Since then, I have asked repeatedly for the promised replies and was assured that they would be forthcoming."

    Three of the six questions Silverstein submitted concerned impeachment of President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, or Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

    For instance, Silverstein hoped to get an answer to whether or not Rep. Conyers believed Bush and Cheney were, "guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors in regard to leading the country into the war in Iraq?"

    If Conyers won't do his job, then remove him with Pelosi and Reid!

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  149. For you Worfeus:

    Joe Biden recently sat down with Newsweek to discuss his presidential campaign and his thoughts on 35 years in the Senate. When asked about impeachment, Biden said he's against the idea because impeachment proceedings would paralyze Congress and take the nation's focus off other, more important matters. But he has a pretty stunning Plan B.

    The alternative, and it's taken me time to think through, I think we should be acquiring and accumulating all the data that is appropriate for possibly bringing criminal charges against members of this administration at a later date.

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  150. Yea I know about that larry. I think he's caving on impeachment because he knows Lieberman will switch sides and toss the senate balance if its introduced. He's in the Senate anyway, so he doesn't decide whether to vote for impeachment. Once the house votes for it, I'm sure he will.

    I don't like him saying it though, and thats why I haven't tossed my support to him. I'd like to know what Edwards has to say about it. Of course Edwards not in the Senate, and has no power but I'd still like to hear his thoughts.

    As for Bidens plan to go after Bush once he's out of power, and his cronies, I think its smart.

    They stacked the courts and the DOJ so that they could insulate themselves. Once they're out of power, there won't be a judge on the face of the planet that will let them off the hook.

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  151. Off topic, but I wrote this in another blog and thought someone in here might want to read it.

    George W. Bush did NOT win the 2000 election.Think about it.

    Florida state police set up a road block outside of broward county Florida, stopping traffic for miles, keeping 16,000 DEMOCRATS from reaching the polls.

    The State Police are commanded by the GOVENOR.

    The Govenor is the BROTHER of the man running for President.

    The night of his BROTHERS ELECTION, the State Police set up a road block on the only road leading out of an ALL DEMOCRAT district.

    16,000 DEMOCRAT VOTERS are KEPT FROM VOTING.

    Then the Govenors brother wins the election by 537 VOTES!!!

    FIVE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN VOTES!!!!!

    And the woman in charge of recount?

    Why, they appointed the woman who was the CHAIRMAN of the COMITTEE to ELECT THE GOVENORS BROTHER!!!

    The election was a SHAM. Worthy of a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY.

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  152. And lets not forget who CALLED the election for Bush.

    What famous news figure called the election for Bush? Dan Rather? Peter Jennings? Nope.

    HIS COUSIN.

    BUSH’S COUSIN called the election.

    Worthy of a third world country.

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  153. Hi Lydia and Guys!

    Happy Friday.. what's left of it anyway! ;)

    Bush's war adviser says it makes sense to consider a draft.

    This makes me sick since I have sons of draft age!

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  154. "I think it makes sense to certainly consider it," Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."

    "And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another," Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.

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  155. Check out this video of Cheney:

    Mauigirl

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  156. Larry, et al,

    Cheney's jonesin to attack Iran.

    He's got the fever -- real bad and he knows the clock is ticking on the final days of Little Boots' administration.

    I expect after August to see a lot of Joementum pushing the Congress in the direction of approving war with Iran and then watch: all the DINO Dems will fall in-line behind Bush like good little lemmings, just like they did in 2002 with Iraq.

    Understand now why I am so angry at Pelosi for taking impeachment off the table?


    I have heard, from people who have conversations with other people, that an attack ordered on Iran has an excellent chance of ending with a bunch of Executive Branch members detained by the military.

    Military rebellions are seldom well-choreographed, and usually wind up making it real hard to recover from them. More than once, this kind of a rebellion has ended a nation.

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  157. JR, when you say a "military rebellon", are you saying merely a mutiny were the military disobeys and possibly removes unfit leaders............or are you talking about a coup where the military actually declares martial law and seizes power and control of the country?

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  158. It doesn't look good either way Mike.

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  159. A tightly-knit group of self-styled moderate and conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives known as the Blue Dog Coalition supported controversial legislation granting the Bush administration expanded powers to spy on Americans. The group was instrumental in passing legislation that was opposed by a vast majority of Democrats.

    According to their web site, the coalition named themselves Blue Dogs because "their moderate-to-conservative-views had been 'choked blue' by their party in the years leading up to the 1994 election." They have had some success taking seats from Republican incumbents. According to their web site, 24 Blue Dogs won elections against Republican incumbents since 1996.

    The Blue Dogs pride themselves on being a fiscally conservative group intent on balancing the national budget and paying down the almost $9 trillion national debt. Tim Mahoney, who became the Representative for the 16th district of Florida after disgraced Republican Mark Foley dropped out of the 2006 election, recently became a member of the Blue Dogs. When he joined up, Mahoney described the coalition as a select group with an agenda. "We're hawks on national defense, we're pro-business, especially small business, and we believe in balancing the budget," Mahoney said. According to Mahoney, he faced a thorough vetting process before being accepted into the group. "You have to be interviewed and accepted by the group. You have to be able to demonstrate that you're ideologically supportive of being fiscally conservative. You show them speeches and statements you've made in the past," Mahoney told the Charlotte Sun, a local paper from his district.

    The Blue Dogs have apparently informed the Democratic leadership in the House that they support the ongoing occupation of Iraq. According to Mahoney, he met with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and told her "The president should be free to maintain troops in Iraq, if the purpose is to thwart terrorism."

    Mahoney's description of the Blue Dog's hawkish stance is not officially part of their platform, according to their spokesperson and their web site. The group does not issue press releases on national defense votes, although they have played an instrumental role in passing controversial bills that have been framed by the Bush administration as legislation intended to prevent terrorism.

    The Blue Dogs have provided key votes on controversial bills backed by the Bush administration. In September of 2006, 31 Democratic representatives voted with the Republican majority in the House to pass The Military Commissions Act. The controversial act empowered Bush to designate individuals as "enemy combatants," and deny them certain legal rights. Twenty-three of the Democrats who supported the bill were Blue Dogs. At 10:20 PM on Saturday, August 4, 2007, with the help of 31 Blue Dogs, the House Republicans passed the Protect America Act, a bill that altered the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and weakened safeguards against domestic warrantless wiretapping. The bill, a replica of a proposal by the Bush administration, passed with a 44 vote margin, with 227 Yeas and 183 Nays. Despite comprising 76 percent of the Democratic support for the bill, communications director for the Blue Dogs, Kristen Hawn, said that the Blue Dog Coalition took no official position on the bill.

    Despite the fracture among Democrats, Pelosi allowed the Republican bill to come to the floor for a vote. After it passed, she went on record saying that the bill "does violence to the Constitution of the United States."

    Earlier in the week, a FISA revision proposed by the Democrats as a compromise with the Bush administration was placed on the suspension calendar by the Speaker. This procedural move made the bill safe from amendments but also significantly raised the number of votes required to pass it. Because of the move, the bill required a two-thirds majority vote, a margin the Democrats were unable to achieve. The Democratic leadership was faced with a choice: allow the President's bill to come to the floor, or defy the President's demand for action and take their summer recess without updating FISA. Pelosi's office did not return phone calls for comment.

    Jim Webb is a Blue Dog Bush Democrat!

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  160. The Democrats are a disgrace.............I hope thingswill be different if they win the presidency and a comanding majority in the Senate but that remains to be seen.

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  161. It sure would be nice to tell Loserman to go shut up and sit in the corner with a dunce cap on.

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  162. The way the Democrats are going, we will end up with a Romney dictatorship.

    ReplyDelete
  163. Reuters:

    Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. (LEND.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it expects to post a net loss of $40 million to $60 million for the second quarter, citing lower margins and adverse market conditions.

    The company said in a filing it could face additional losses, because at the end of the second quarter it held $1 billion of loans for sale, and the value of those loans has fallen.

    Another indication of the pending deep recession.

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  164. Reuters:

    Credit spreads and collateralized debt obligations may not mean much to the average U.S. consumer, but if market gyrations persist, Wall Street's pain may come home to hurt Main Street.

    Consumer spending, the driving force behind the U.S. economy, has slowed in the past few months, although it did prove remarkably resilient through a series of gasoline price spikes and the early stages of the housing market slump.

    Easy credit terms have underpinned that spending, and this week's wild ride in financial markets shows how deeply the global economy depends on that free-flowing cash too.

    The problem is, the easy money is drying up.

    First it was mortgage-related markets where credit tightened as home prices fell and subprime mortgage defaults hit a record high.

    The root of the problem can be traced back to U.S. home loans made to people with poor credit histories. But it became a global market problem when the investment community bundled those loans and sliced them up into risky, riskier and riskiest pieces that were resold to investors such as hedge funds and banks.

    Homeowners had little to do with that -- and were often unaware that someone other than their mortgage companies held their notes.

    But in recent weeks, the pain has spread to corporate debt as credit markets have tightened up, and some businesses are starting to hoard cash.

    If consumer credit availability shrinks too -- beyond the mortgage market -- spending will suffer. Continued.

    First Wall Street then main Street: The demise of the U.S economy!

    ReplyDelete
  165. The Official George W. Bush
    "Days Left In Office"
    Countdown:

    528 DAYS
    1 Hrs 19 Min 32.6 Sec

    Will this day ever come?

    ReplyDelete
  166. Shortly before noon last Saturday, about 20 House Democrats huddled in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office to decide what to do about a surveillance bill that had been dumped on them by the Senate before it left town.

    Many of the Democrats were furious. They believed they had negotiated in good faith with Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence. They sought to give the Bush administration the authority it needed to intercept communications involving foreign nationals in terrorism investigations while preserving some oversight.

    But the administration held out for granting McConnell and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales more power while seriously circumscribing the role of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The Senate's Democratic leadership, lacking the votes to pass a measure more to the House's liking, gave the administration what it wanted.

    At one point, according to participants in the Pelosi meeting, the passionate discussion veered toward the idea of standing up to the administration -- even at the risk of handing President Bush a chance to bash Democrats on "national security," as is his wont.

    Several members from swing districts -- including Reps. Heath Shuler of North Carolina and Patrick J. Murphy of Pennsylvania -- expressed openness to having Congress stay in town to fight if important constitutional issues were at stake.

    But the moment passed. Even some very liberal Democrats worried about the political costs of blocking action before the summer recess. That Saturday night, the House sent the president a bill that, as a disgusted Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) put it, with just a touch of exaggeration, "makes Alberto Gonzalez the sheriff, the judge and the jury."

    Most Democrats opposed the bill, but 41 (including Shuler) voted yes, allowing it to pass. (Murphy remained passionately opposed.) The one Democratic victory: The legislation expires in six months, meaning the debate will resume this fall. But Rep. John F. Tierney (D-Mass.) warned his colleagues that "when you give up your rights under the Constitution, it is not likely you are going to regain them."

    The episode was the culmination of a shameful era in which serious issues related to national security and civil liberties were debated in a climate of fear and intimidation, saturated by political calculation and the quest for short-term electoral advantage.

    Politically, Republicans won this round in two ways. They got the president the bill he wanted and, as a result, they created absolute fury in the Democratic base. Pelosi has received more than 200,000 e-mails of protest, according to an aide, for letting the bill go forward.

    Democrats concede they made an enormous tactical blunder by not dealing with the issue earlier, forcing the question to the fore in the days before the recess. One anxiety hovered over the debate: If a terrorist attack happened and Congress had not given Bush what he wanted, the Democrats would get blamed for a lack of vigilance.

    "Could something happen over August?" Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.) asked in an interview. "Sure it could. What bothered me is that too many Democrats allowed that fear to turn into a demand for some atrocious legislation."

    The saga also underscored how constrained congressional Democrats feel because of their tenuous majority in the Senate. Had the Senate sent the House an alternative bill, sponsored by Sens. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the two houses could have put a more limited proposal on the president's desk and challenged him to veto it. But the Levin-Rockefeller proposal failed.

    McConnell, in the meantime, played an ambiguous role. Democrats acknowledge that the intelligence director never explicitly agreed to the House leadership's proposal. But their fears that McConnell was not calling the shots were stoked when Democratic leaders tried at one point to reach him by phone. An assistant to McConnell let slip that the intelligence director could not pick up because he was on the line with the White House. It was another sign, said a top Democratic aide, that "the White House was driving the train on this."

    The entire display was disgraceful because an issue of such import should not be debated in a political pressure cooker. It's not even clear that new legislation was required; Holt, for one, believes many of the problems with handling interceptions involving foreign nationals are administrative in nature and that beefing up and reorganizing the staff around the FISA court might solve the outstanding problems.

    But if legislation was needed, there were many ways to grant necessary authority while preserving real oversight. The Democrats got trapped, and they punted. The Republicans have never met a national security issue they're not willing to politicize. This is no way to run a superpower.

    Spineless and self-serving.

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  167. Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:

    ABC's "This Week" — Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio; actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

    CBS' "Face the Nation" — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

    NBC's "Meet the Press" — Democratic Leadership Council Chairman Harold Ford Jr.; Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos Web site.

    CNN's "Late Edition" — Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistani ambassador to U.S.; Reps. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Joe Sestak, D-Pa.; former Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., campaign adviser to Mitt Romney; Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., campaign adviser to Rudy Giuliani; former Gov. Buddy Roemer, R-La., of John McCain's campaign; Transportation Secretary Mary Peters.

    "Fox News Sunday" — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann Romney.

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  168. It's amazing to me in this day and age that coal miners are still getting trapped in unsafe mines and that they aren't unionized.

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  169. China's trade surplus soared 67 percent in July from a year ago to its second-highest monthly level on record, according to data reported Friday, amid pressure by U.S. lawmakers to sanction Beijing over trade and currency disputes.

    July's surplus totaled $24.4 billion, the Chinese customs agency reported. That beat every previous month except June's all-time high of $26.9 billion.

    Analysts had expected the surplus to ease in July after exporters rushed to ship goods in earlier months to beat changes in tax policy meant to narrow China's yawning trade gap.

    The surplus grew despite recalls and warnings targeting faulty or tainted Chinese goods ranging from toothpaste to tires to seafood in the United States and other countries.

    The United States and other trading partners are pressing Beijing to ease currency controls and barriers to imports. Some U.S. lawmakers are pressing for sanctions on China if it fails to ease controls on its currency, the yuan, which critics say is undervalued and gives Chinese exporters an unfair price advantage.

    The U.S. Senate is considering two measures to penalize China for its currency controls.

    Senate panels approved them over the protests of U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who is conducting a long-running "strategic economic dialogue" with Beijing over trade and other disputes and says punitive legislation would disrupt that process.

    The July figure raised China's total trade surplus for the first seven months of this year to $136.8 billion, the General Administration of Customs said on its Web site.

    July exports surged 34.2 percent to $107.7 billion while imports rose more slowly, expanding 26.9 percent to $83.4 billion, the agency said.

    China's July trade surplus with the United States was $14.4 billion. Exports rose 18 percent to $20.4 billion while imports of American goods rose 15.8 percent to $6 billion, the agency said.

    China's total surplus with the United States stands at $88.3 billion for the first seven months of the year, according to the government's figures. Beijing often reports a much smaller figure than Washington for China's trade gap with the United States.

    The United States reported a trade deficit of $232.5 billion with China last year, its biggest ever with any country. This year's gap is expected to exceed that.

    China's trade surplus with the European Union, its biggest trading partner, was $12.1 billion (8.9 billion euros), according to the customs agency's figures. Exports to Europe rose 31.9 percent to $21.9 billion (16 billion euros) and imports rose 21.8 percent to $9.8 billion (7.2 billion euros).

    Why is this happening Bush?

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  170. Mauigirl,

    It is a shame that miners have one of the most dangerous mines in the world, and the most anti-union employers in Corporate America.

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  171. I have a feeling though, that if we launch offensive unilateral strikes against Iran, a recognized soveriegn nation, that we're not going to have to worry about a democratic president being handed a clusterf#$k.

    Because if we launch unprovoked attacks on Iran then the international community, many of whom have a vested interest in Iran, will come to their aid, and we'll find ourselves literally between Iraq, and a hard place.

    Our soliders will be stuck in a hostile nation, surrounded by hostile nations, and then all hells gonna break loose. Bush will of course institute martial law, and knowing him, freeze elections. At which point America will most likely experience its second civil war, only this time, with an international twist.

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  172. Bartlebee:

    I have no doubt Russia will help Iran and probably China since they are oilhogs.

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  173. I tried to post this comment in THinkProgress Larry but for some odd reason they keep deleting it.

    Just this ONE comment.

    Why do you think they don't want anyone to read this one comment???

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  174. Sounds like they are so progressive after all Bartlebee.

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  175. Lydia Cornell said...
    Mike, did you hear the John Edwards interview? My very next question was the FISA law question, about why Dems caved -- but he had a plane to catch.

    Edwards was terrific and he said some really nice things about us...

    We are having him on again, and I'll ask him if there is a silver lining..."

    Lydia, I heard the interview...........I like Edwardfs more and more the more I hear him, I would have really liked to hear his opinion on Fisa.

    Regarding Fisa, I think its great you try to see the good in everything...........I wish i could see good in this as well, but unfortunatelty what I see is a bunch of weak cowardly Democrats who have learned absolutely NOTHING since Authorizing the IRaq war and the Patriot Act 5 years ago..............they fell for the same fear tactics now as they did then............i'm sorry but I cant support people who repeatedly act out of fear rather than a reasoned and logical thought process, and dont learn from their mistakes

    They were afraid of looking weak on defense if a terrorist act occured, the should have taken a stand for freedom democracy and the Constitution rather than spinelessly giving in to dictatorship and moving us closer to a fascist police state.

    Other than people you care about freedom is the most precious thing in this world and the democrats sold it out for a vacation and because they were afraid of being painted as weak on terrorism...........well guess what they are weak. ....they sold out the Constitution because it was easier for them politically than to stand tall and take a stand.................if someone were to ask me are these people i could depend on in a crisis and would want to have my back the answer would be a LOUD NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

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  176. There was an intentional manipulation of the facts to get this legislation through," said Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, a Democrat on the Intelligence Committee who voted against the plan.

    The White House, Mr. Feingold said Friday in an interview, "has identified the one major remaining weakness in the Democratic Party, and that's its unwillingness to stand up to the administration when it's making a power grab regarding terrorism and national security."

    The Democrats sold out America, as did Bush.

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  177. The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining major Wall Street banks to determine their vulnerability to home-loan defaults. Two people familiar with the accounting inquiry described the examination as a routine part of the SEC's oversight authority and said it involved Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and several rival investment banks.

    The people declined to be identified by name because the inquiry has not been publicly disclosed.

    The Wall Street Journal reported the SEC's probe on Friday.

    Trouble in the U.S. mortgage market, and a related credit crunch, has rippled across the globe. French bank BNP Paribas on Thursday suspended three securities funds valued at $2.75 billion, saying it could not value them accurately because of problems in the U.S. mortgage market.

    Credit is drying up in the mortgage and corporate buyout markets after several years in which lending standards were loosened — too far, in retrospect, many experts say. With big mortgage-related losses affecting companies as diverse as German banks and Australian hedge funds, investors are uncertain about how far the problems will spread.

    No need to check the books, Bush has ruined the economy.

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  178. USA Today:

    It's called "payment shock." A typical home buyer with slightly blemished credit starts off with a $200,000 mortgage, a 7% interest rate and an initial monthly payment of $1,531. Everything's fine for two years until that low "teaser" rate expires and jumps to 11.5%, adding a whopping $625 to the monthly payment.

    What was a stretch becomes unaffordable, the homeowner falls behind and, in the worst case, loses the home.

    This domestic tragedy, multiplied many times over, has triggered the meltdown in the subprime mortgage market, where people with less-than-perfect credit records go to find home loans. About one-fifth of the 6.5 million such loans originated in 2005 and 2006 will likely end up in foreclosure.

    It's still uncertain how far the pain will extend beyond the unfortunate homeowners and the housing market. But fallout from the subprime meltdown is already chilling the broader credit markets and threatening to spread to the broader economy. All of that terrifies the stock market, where the jittery Dow Jones average plummeted a sickening 387 points Thursday on credit worries.

    This is Bush's great economy!

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  179. Salon:

    Even if George W. Bush is the most awful American president in modern times, as many historians believe, and even though he has brought the United States into unprecedented disrepute around the world, as opinion polls indicate, the bombastic tone of the candidates seeking to succeed him from his own party raises a disturbing possibility.

    If the next president is a Republican, this truly bad situation could become still worse.

    Concerning the Iraq war, of course, there is no discernible difference between the current president and his would-be Republican successors (with the exception of Ron Paul, the libertarian antiwar candidate from Bush's home state of Texas). The leading GOP contenders have all endorsed the current escalation of U.S. forces. They all share the president's determination to keep our troops there indefinitely. They all insistently echo Bush by linking the invasion and occupation of Iraq with the attacks of 9/11.

    Yet beyond the horrors of Iraq and the excesses of the "war on terror," for which history will hold him culpable, Bush at least has acknowledged the importance of reaching out to the world's Muslims (although he tends to reach out too often with bombs and a torture technique known as waterboarding). In his rhetoric, the president usually seeks to distinguish the religion of Islam, which he has honored in the White House on many occasions, from the murderous perversion of that faith. And in his best moments after 9/11, he has defended the rights of Muslim Americans to live here without suffering persecution or prejudice.

    Perhaps Bush's efforts deserve to be dismissed as little more than lip service, but semantics matter. The Republicans most likely to win their party's presidential nomination constantly use language that is meant to inflame anger against Muslims for political advantage.

    During the last Republican debate, on Aug. 5, Rudolph Giuliani eagerly provided an example of this syndrome when he attacked the Democratic presidential candidates for failing to describe terrorism as Islamic. "During four Democratic debates," he complained, "not a single Democratic candidate said the word [sic] 'Islamic terrorism.' Now, that is taking political correctness to extremes." To him, the absence of that phrase in their speeches, no matter how tough their stance against terror, proved that Democrats are guilty of "weakness and appeasement." The other Republicans, again except for Paul, agreed -- although as John Dickerson of Slate has pointed out, that phrase is also assiduously avoided by the Bush White House.

    That is really something blightful to expect!

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  180. Concerning the Iraq war, of course, there is no discernible difference between the current president and his would-be Republican successors....

    The DINO Dems aren't much better.

    Both Hillary and Obama waffle back and forth but at the end of the day, agree they would keep some military presence in Iraq.

    What the hell does that mean?

    10,000 troops? 50,000 troops? You can't pin them down for specifics and frankly, I don't think they have any intention to stop this war.

    After all, the Iraq war was and is, all about oil in the 21st century. Who has it and who needs it.

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  181. Executive Branch members detained by the military...

    People familiar with my writing know I have long suggested a military coup may be the only thing that will effectively stop Bush and Cheney.

    Many thought the newly elected Domocratic Congress would put the brakes on this administration, but alas, the Pelosi and Reid circus is just as hapless as the previous, GOP-led Congress.

    I have also heard (from sources I have at the Pentagon) that if Cheney orders a nuclear attack on Iran, he will be immediately arrested.

    Who would've thought things would come to this?

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  182. I hope you are right about the military coup Christopher, Clif and Jolly Roger have been saying the military will not allow Martial Law.

    My fear is most of America have become sheep in the pasture of the unknown.

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  183. Anonymous7:51 AM

    Christopher said,

    Many thought the newly elected Domocratic Congress would put the brakes on this administration, but alas, the Pelosi and Reid circus is just as hapless as the previous, GOP-led Congress.

    I have also heard (from sources I have at the Pentagon) that if Cheney orders a nuclear attack on Iran, he will be immediately arrested.

    Who would've thought things would come to this?



    That dovetails with what I know. The only difference being that I have heard through third-hand information (that I would stress I have no reason not to believe) is that if the monkey or his puppeteer order ANY kind of an attack on Iran at all that there is a group very near to them ready to begin detaining them. I have also heard that they, themselves, know this to be true and are frantically trying to weed out the ones who pose that danger to them.

    There is a very real, seething anger in the ranks over the failure of CONgress to do its job.

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  184. Anonymous7:56 AM

    mike asked,
    JR, when you say a "military rebellon", are you saying merely a mutiny were the military disobeys and possibly removes unfit leaders............or are you talking about a coup where the military actually declares martial law and seizes power and control of the country?


    That;s the $64000.00 question. These things never are planned all that well, and from a personal perspective I do not see Generals handing power over to Speaker Botox. That, of course, is purely my opinion.

    I personally believe that Guard and Reserve units will heed the inevitable call of their Governors to come home.

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  185. There is a very real, seething anger in the ranks over the failure of CONgress to do its job.

    What I was told is, a U.S. military attack of Iran, ordered by Cheney (doesn't he order everything?) will result in Iran attacking Israel in retaliation.

    The Pentagon isn't prepared nor are they interested in U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran AND Israel. A trans-regional deployment of the U.S. military is impossible and we no longer have adequate relations with former allies to assist us (thanks to Bush.)

    I almost -- almost want to see Cheney try it and then relish the images of him being hauled out of his rabbit hole in handcuffs.

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  186. Larry,

    If you read the so-called USA PATRIOT ACT I and USA PATRIOT ACT II (yes, there is a second one), it clearly states that another "terrorist attack on U.S. soil will result in Congress' power being ceded to FEMA" and elections will suspended and Martial Law declared.

    Imagine it: George W. Bush as Murika's dictator until he drops dead?

    This is scary stuff and yet, our beloved Congress -- Dems and Repugs alike, knocked one another to the ground to approve the USA PATRIOT ACT I and USA PATRIOT ACT II.

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  187. I like Edwards a lot. Big Business is scared to death of trial lawyers, and I like anybody who can make them squirm.

    Unfortunately, I don't know if he can get elected. I think his "pretty boy" image could sink him.

    Who Hijacked Our Country

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  188. Bush still lying while on vacation:

    President Bush, presiding over a nation dispirited by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, on Saturday cast both conflicts in terms of "encouraging news." In stating his case, the president emphasized enemy deaths.

    Bush loves death and he loves war, even on vacation!

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  189. When in trouble, Hug The Troops:

    WASHINGTON --Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, under fire at home with calls for his resignation, is spending some time in Iraq.

    The Justice Department said that Gonzales arrived in Baghdad on Saturday for his third trip to Iraq to meet with department officials who have been there to help fashion the country's legal system.

    "I am pleased to see firsthand ... the progress that the men and women of the Justice Department have made to rebuild Iraq's legal system and law enforcement infrastructure," Gonzales said in a statement released by the department.

    His optimistic assessment came despite the frequent sectarian lawlessness and killings in the country.

    Typical Bush move. Go find some troops to hug when the country wants your hide!

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  190. A powerful roadside bomb on Saturday killed the governor and police chief of a southern province that has seen fierce internal fighting between Shiite factions, officials said.

    The bomb struck a convoy carrying the Khalil Jalil Hamza, the governor of the Qadisiyah province, and the provincial police chief home from a funeral service for a tribal sheik at about 5 p.m., army Brig. Gen. Othman al-Farood said.

    "Surge" still working for you Bush?

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  191. Salon:

    The Iowa State Fair is not a political event. It is a place for prized cattle, fried Twinkies, enormous gourds, the Harry Potter butter sculpture (with butter Quidditch stick), and carnival barkers hawking the "Amazing Wonder Knife" for only $20, if you act now.

    But with the Republican straw poll just hours from opening, politics has set up shop at the fair. Not that most people really notice. Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee were due to come through Friday. California Republican Duncan Hunter spent at least 30 minutes walking by the corndog stalls, a steak sandwich in hand, with hardly anyone stopping to shake his hand. (It was easy to tell who he was because he wore a cowboy hat with his bumper sticker on it.)

    The exception was Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who is widely expected to win the straw poll. Wherever he went, he created some commotion, if only because he was being trailed by at least a dozen journalists, a half-dozen cameras and at least three of his sons. At one point this afternoon, he grabbed a microphone, stopping a crowd of about 100 for a shortened version of his stump speech.

    Afterward, it got interesting. While Romney was shaking hands, an Iraq war veteran started calling out Romney's name. Ron Devoll Jr. is a 26-year-old from Cedar Falls, Iowa, who was wounded in Iraq by a mortar round. He was wearing a Red Sox baseball cap. Here's the transcript of what happened next:

    DEVOLL: I'm an Iraq veteran. (Romney reached out to shake his hand.)

    ROMNEY: Thank you for your service, and go Red Sox.

    DEVOLL: If you were elected when would you pull the troops out?

    ROMNEY: When the job is done, and hopefully that gets done soon, and the surge is successful. I sure hope it is going to be successful.

    DEVOLL: Don't you think this is compared to the Vietnam War?

    ROMNEY: It is by a lot of people. But I think it is different in a lot of respects, and the key respect is this: And that is that if this becomes, if we leave in the wrong way there, this could become a conflict that could engulf the entire region and potentially draw us back again into a worse situation. And so I believe the surge, I hope the surge will be successful. We're going to give it a shot. We are going to hear what Petraeus has to say in a month, and hopefully it will be successful. We can start bringing our troops home. That's what I would like to see.

    DEVOLL: But why aren't we...

    Devoll never got to finish asking his third question. Romney's traveling press secretary, Eric Fehrnstrom, announced to everyone that Romney had to go somewhere else to be. "Thank you very much," Fehrnstrom said.

    But Devoll, who said he once voted Republican, was just getting started. "I think that Romney was disrespectful," Devoll told reporters after the candidate had left. "I tried to ask him questions. You know I am an Iraq vet who served my country and he can't give me a few minutes of his time, and he wants to walk off. I think that's really disrespectful," he said.

    "I was wounded over there," he added. "I lost a lot of friends over there."

    Typical Republican response!

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  192. As far as i'm concerned any Congress people who choose fear over freedom and who choose the "DECIDER" our Constition are not fit to govern this country.

    When you allow yourself to be ruled by fear, poor decisions are usually made.

    The Democrats showed they have learned ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from 5 years ago when Bush used fear tactics to get authorization for war and to ram the Patriot Act through.

    The Democrats fell for the same tired BS as they did back then and exhibbited the very same cowardice and spinelessness in choosing fascism over freedom as they did back then.

    Honestly I think the Democrats are spineless and have piss poor judgement and that makes them unfit to governm our country in my mind.

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  193. That being said, there are Many degrees of unfit and i'll take the Democrats ANYDAY over a group of freedom loathing fascists whose base is so inbred stupid that their favorite vegetables are catsup, chewing tobacco and Ronald Reagan!

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  194. Christopher said...
    Larry,

    If you read the so-called USA PATRIOT ACT I and USA PATRIOT ACT II (yes, there is a second one), it clearly states that another "terrorist attack on U.S. soil will result in Congress' power being ceded to FEMA" and elections will suspended and Martial Law declared.

    Imagine it: George W. Bush as Murika's dictator until he drops dead?

    This is scary stuff and yet, our beloved Congress -- Dems and Repugs alike, knocked one another to the ground to approve the USA PATRIOT ACT I and USA PATRIOT ACT II."

    Chris, isnt it pathetic how this monkey misfit could be able to hijack our democracy and dismantle the constitution and how the democrats are SO spineless, misguided and have such poor judgement that they dont even TRY to challenge BUSH.....................The way I see it even a failed impeachment by the Dems is a win for them because all the crimes come to light and become public in an election year.

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  195. Mike if you pick the lesser of two evils, it will be the Democrats, though not by much these days.

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  196. Why did Pelosi and Reid allow these to become law, and why did big bad Jim Webb tow the Bush line in his vote?

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  197. Cristopher said "I almost -- almost want to see Cheney try it and then relish the images of him being hauled out of his rabbit hole in handcuffs."

    I would love to see that fascist buffoon hauled away in shackles and an orange jumpsuit with a number on it as well.

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  198. Cheney would flee the country before they put his bloated carcass in cuffs.

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